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The Sun bathes the Earth in radiation. Much of this radiation reaches the surface, warming the planet and driving the climate. The surface then emits heat (as infrared radiation), most of which does not escape to space, but is instead absorbed by gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. These gases then warm, emitting further heat radiation both to space and back towards the Earth’s surface. This is what we all know as the greenhouse effect. The Earth’s energy balance In order for the radiative budget of the Earth to be in equilibrium – that is heat radiation leaving the planet to equal the absorbed solar...

Sea-level change is an important consequence of climate change, whether natural or anthropogenic. Global mean sea level has been rising. For the 20th century, the average rate was 1.7 ± 0.5 mm yr–1 (IPCC AR5), and in some locations (such as the east coast of the USA) there is some evidence that the rate of sea-level change appears to have increased from the 19th to 20th centuries. However, sea-level change is not a global process but in fact the sea level at any location and at any time is result of a complex combination of a range of factors. Changes in sea level are a result of any...

This week, delegates from the UN met in New York to discuss global climate change and to develop strategies for tackling these issues. What are the outcomes of their discussions? And what does this mean going forwards? #climate2014 The meeting in New York was the largest climate meeting since Copenhagen 2009, and 120 world leaders took part in discussions. As well as discussing issues surrounding climate change, the summit aimed to encourage member states of the UN to sign the global climate agreement, which will be announced next year in Paris. The talks focused on eight areas: agriculture, cities, energy, financing, forests, industry, resilience,...

What happens to the atmosphere when volcanoes erupt? Can volcanic eruptions lead to climate change? In 2010 the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in south Iceland brought air traffic in northern Europe to a standstill for almost seven days. Now, the Bárðarbunga volcano, which has erupted beneath the Dyngjujökull glacier in central Iceland, is being intensively studied by scientists. On average, there are around 50-60 volcanic eruptions around the world each year. When volcanoes erupt, they can emit huge volumes of gases, aerosols, and volcanic ash into the stratosphere (part of the atmosphere at around 10-45 km altitude http://climatica.org.uk/climate-science-information/earth-system). With all of this material, we might expect...

By Dr Jonathan Dean, Prof Melanie Leng and Prof Anson Mackay The Anthropocene is a term that is increasingly being used to refer to the current interval in geological time in which humans have become a dominant force of global environmental change. It was coined by Prof Eugene Stoermer, a biologist, in the 1980s and popularised in the early 2000s by Prof Paul Crutzen, an atmospheric chemist. It is now indisputable that humans are leaving their mark on the planet (see the recent Climatica summary of the ‘Climate change: evidence and causes’ report here: http://climatica.org.uk/royal-society-national-academy-sciences-climate-change-evidence-causes). For instance, over the last century or so, atmospheric...